The preliminary reading of the US Composite Purchasing Managers' Index for September, released by S&P Global on the 23rd, came in at 58.4, up from 56.0 the previous month and the highest level since July 2021. A sharp jump in new orders was the driving factor, with the index rising in both services and manufacturing. S&P Global said the result was consistent with annualized economic growth of about 5%, while noting that backlogs of uncompleted orders and supply chain delays have surged, and that insufficient operating capacity is feeding into higher prices. The new orders index rose to 58.2 from 55.2 in August, the highest since March 2022, while backlogs of orders reached their highest level since May 2022. The input prices index jumped to 66.4 from 59.9 the previous month, the highest since October 2022. Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said both manufacturing and services are booming, and that this growth has been accompanied by the most severe supply chain bottlenecks in roughly 20 years of survey history, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic.
S&P Global IncS&P Global's own PMI survey shows a surge in new orders and booming services and manufacturing activity, boosting demand for its data and analytics products.
